Dumper driver just ran away, recounts farmer
KANPUR : The soil-laden dumper at the centre of the Kaifiyat Express derailment in Auraiya got stuck in mud and then overturned when the driver tried to extricate it early on Wednesday, eyewitnesses told the police.
Registered in Haryana, the dumper was offloading soil for the dedicated freight corridor project coming up parallel to the operational railway track in Auraiya. The freight corridor is being developed between Delhi and Howrah. The tracks are being laid parallel to the main Delhi-Howrah track route.
HT spoke to police officials and residents of Purvadhali village near the accident site between Pata and Achhalda railway stations to piece together the sequence of events. The people of this village were the first to have responded to the emergency.
After the dumper overturned, the driver made frequent calls from his mobile phone, said a farmer Vishram Singh who was irrigating his field outside the village.
The driver told the farmer that his dumper had overturned and sought his help, asking for a torch. “I had a torch. I accompanied him as he wanted my help,” said Singh.
“We were near the track when the train arrived and collided with the dumper. He (the dumper driver) just ran away, leaving me there,” said Singh who ran back to his village and gathered people to help the passengers. The villagers informed Auraiya superintendent of police Sanjiv Tyagi about the accident. Police officials said the train arrived 12 minutes after the dumper overturned on the tracks.
“If he (the dumper driver) had informed the railway gateman about a kilometre away or someone at the project site, efforts could have been made to stop the train or alert the train driver,” said an official who did not wish to be named.
The police are also looking into the reports about the dumper driver calling the Dial 100 service about the dumped having overturned on the rail track. Tyagi, who was among the first to reach the accident, said the Auraiya police were informed by the villagers and not Dial 100.
The railways, however, blamed the dumper driver and the company, which had engaged it for the dedicated freight corridor project, for the derailment. An FIR was registered against the unidentified driver, his company and the contractor at the Government Railway Police police station in Etawah. Though the accident took place in Auraiya, the area falls under jurisdiction of the GRP Etawah.